In cookers that roast edible nut meats and fry potato chips, the fall-off from the product, such as flour from the nuts, starch and particles from potato chips, contaminates the oil. Breaded foods or foods which are dredged in flour before frying give off large quantities of crumbs and food particles during frying. In the past, foreign materials have been removed from the cooking fat by periodically straining or filtering the fat as the contamination builds up. But now, because of the cost of straining or filtering the fat, this method of maintaining frying fat clean is economically unsound.
There is thus an established need for a deep fat fryer which provides for automatic removal of particles of crumbs and food as they settle out from the fat during frying.